Women’s Treatment by the Taliban in Afghanistan
Afghanistan has a tumultuous history, which includes Soviet occupation, U.S. military presence, and the rule of militant groups like the Taliban. Under these circumstances, women in Afghanistan have struggled to advocate for their rights for the past 50 years. Before the Soviet invasion in 1979, Afghan women were able to work, dress freely, and had a right to education. This changed during the Soviet occupation between 1979-1989, where the mujahideen residence included various factions that all held differing views on women’s rights. In 1996, the Taliban came to power and imposed oppressive restrictions on women. They were barred from work, education, and force to wear a burqa in public. There was then a great international intervention in 2001, following the 9/11 attacks, where the Taliban were expelled and there was headway to improve women’s rights. They regained access to education, participated in the workforce, and entered into politics after their rights were introduced to the Afghan constitution. In 2021, the resurrection of hope for women in Afghanistan was quashed as the Taliban retook power. The restrictions have since returned, and the stability of the entire country has been uprooted.
Since the Taliban took control of the Ghazni province in southeastern Afghanistan in August 2021, they have imposed policies that severely restrict the rights of women and girls, according to a report by Human Rights Watch and the Human Rights Institute at San Jose State University. These restrictions include bans on secondary and higher education and the prohibition of women and girls from working in most sectors. The Taliban has also implemented rules governing women's attire, freedom of movement, and even the type of cell phones they can use. Despite initial promises of allowing women to exercise their rights within Sharia Law, the Taliban has systematically excluded them from public life. Women have been barred from holding cabinet positions and the Ministry of Women's Affairs has been abolished. Despite these challenges, Afghan women and girls are showing resilience by forming civil society groups, reopening businesses, and continuing their daily lives in the face of constant threats and violence. The current situation represents a significant setback for gender equality and women's rights, erasing decades of progress.
Many Afghan women are being forced to act in the extremes. In one incident, a mother risked flogging to take her feverish child to a doctor due to the Taliban's strict restrictions on women's movement. The financial crisis following the Taliban's takeover, coupled with rising prices, has compounded the difficulties faced by Afghan women. Many women have lost their jobs due to Taliban policies, and those still working often go unpaid due to aid cut-offs. The Taliban uses intimidation and threats to extort money, food, and services from communities and households. The Afghan people are thus living in a pervasive climate of fear and anxiety.
In the Taliban’s Afghanistan, women and girls are barred from pursuing secondary and higher education. Former educators have taken an unorthodox approach to rectifying the injustice. A BBC program called ‘Dars’, meaning lesson in Pashto, a local language, is being used in secret school lessons. A 28-year-old teacher named Afsana holds a secret school. She teaches with a whiteboard, a phone, and the BBC Dars program to 25 girls between the ages of 12 and 18. program covers basic subjects like maths, history, and sciences, and is hosted by a female journalist who fled Kabul two years earlier. However, the secret teachings that utilize the program are not substitutes for a formal education and the lack of access to modern education methods is severely impactful to the development of these girls. Although, the Taliban state that it will lift the ban on education when the curriculum has been evaluated to Islamic traditions, many doubt this claim as restrictions increase.
The Taliban’s rule also threatens freedom of speech in Afghanistan. Women’s rights activists such as Munizha Siddiq have been in detention for months. Her charges are unclear, and her circumstances are becoming a familiar occurrence for women’s advocates under the Taliban. The United Nations Human Rights Chief has described women’s current situation under the Taliban as ‘shocking level of oppression’ and details that the human rights in the country are said to be in a state of collapse. The UN condemns the escalation of such restrictions but has not been able to enforce the upholding of women’s rights.
Several former activists have left Afghanistan, just like the BBC ‘Dars’ host. Elham Barakzai, an Afghan doctor and activist, fled Afghanistan when the Taliban regained power. Barakzai worked with women’s rights groups and aided projects helping younger women leave orphanages safely. Barakzai received a Chevening scholarship at a UK university, where education offered her the ability to escape the oppressive rule of the Taliban. Unfortunately, this opportunity was not extended to her family, and Barakzai consistently faced mental health challenges due to anxiety about her family’s safety and her lack of a sense of belonging. Barakzai, much like the teachers continuing their work secretly, are examples of Afghan women’s resilience, whose stories highlight just how dire the situations have become for the women in Afghanistan.
There is a call to action to criminalize the treatment of women in oppressive regimes like the Taliban. UN experts Richard Bennett and Dorothy Estrada-Tanck stated in a joint report that the Taliban in Afghanistan have systematically restricted human rights, approaching the definition and practices of ‘gender apartheid’. Women are being restricted across all freedoms, including education, work, healthcare, and participation in public life. Women are often not allowed to leave their homes without a male chaperone, move freely in the country, or access public facilities. There is also a distinct lack of legal protection for women and girls. The UN also calls for the authorities in Afghanistan to restore and to respect women’s rights and encourages those in the international community to remain engaged and supportive of the Afghan women. Karima Bennoune, a human rights expert, proposed the codifying of ‘gender apartheid’ as a crime against humanity in international law. The proposal wants to further criminalize the recognition and normalisation of the Taliban and cite them as criminals against humanity, which would lead to future restrictions imposed on them by the UN, other organizations, and leading countries in championing human rights. However, many people have concerns with this approach. Obaidullah Baheer, an Afghan poet, believes that such codifying could lead to increased international interventions and human rights abuses, such as the events that happened in Afghanistan and Iraq under the guise of humanitarianism. Codifying gender apartheid risks oversimplifying the complex situation in any nations embroiled in the practices of gender apartheid and the issue of women’s rights in Afghanistan under the Taliban.
Should the codifying go through, it is likely that more aid will be given to the women in Afghanistan. The UN could intervene on a basic level, providing healthcare and temporary solutions that don’t necessarily infringe upon the Taliban rule. However, the UN does not have an overarching enforcement mechanism to ensure the compliance of the Taliban. It is unlikely, without serious military intervention, that Afghan women and children will be freed from the restrictions imposed upon them and relinquished from the suffering of the ‘gender apartheid’. The Taliban are already internationally condemned as terrorists, simply labeling them as criminals will not encourage them to alter their current objectives. The only foreseeable threat that would force the Taliban into changing their policies, barring any military intervention, would be the termination of partnerships and withdrawal of financial support.
The Taliban gained power in 2021 because both the US and NATO signed an agreement with the organisation to withdraw their troops from Afghanistan. Since the Taliban are at war with the Islamic State Islamic State, or ISIS-K, the Western governing bodies decided to choose between the lesser of two evils to allow the Taliban to fight ISIS to further Western interests. This choice costs more American and NATO lives to continue fighting on two fronts, and sacrificed the progress made in Afghani women’s rights. The bitter irony is that it is the Western organizations like Amnesty International and the UN calling out mistreatment of women and showing willingness to supply aid, but without a militant enforcer, they are unable to deliver on their mission. However, the Western powers who could enforce such actions using force would be betraying their agreement with the Taliban and could further put their own citizens at risk.
Yet, the advocacy for these women’s rights and the classification of ‘gender apartheid’ as a international crime should not cease; the persistent efforts like the BBC ‘Dars’ program and greater access to healthcare should be continue. The Taliban have restrictions on women’s way of life, but if international organisations were to encourage working and education from the homestead and actively supply the resources to do so, the Taliban could not act without incriminating themselves as international criminals. Once their international criminality has been established, it is possible that other, smaller powers, not obliged to follow the NATO, U.S. and Taliban agreement, could intervene.
The Taliban regained control of Afghanistan in 2021, but this time, with ‘consent’ from the Western powers. Western powers hope for the Taliban to continue their war with ISIS to further the Western agenda of the the U.S. and NATO, protecting civilians across the globe. Unfortunately, this came at the cost of human rights, especially those of women. It would be foolish to state that the Western powers did not know their withdrawal would impact the rights of women all across Afghanistan. Since the second instance of Taliban rule in Afghanistan has commenced, women are undergoing the same oppressions as before with a restricted access to education, work, and wear. Stripping women of their independence and freedoms has never been more obvious and with little motivations for a forceful intervention, there is scarce reason to believe it will get any better. However, actions such as secret teachers, persistent mothers, and selfless healthcare workers allow for hope to exist. This hope has toppled empires before, and it could very well do so again.
Image courtesy of Steve Evans via Wikimedia, ©2005. Some rights reserved.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the wider St. Andrews Foreign Affairs Review team.
